Thursday 13th August 2020

[AnatolyKasparov]

Is it that PTO time again? Why, I do believe it is.

[adam]

Not sure where we are in the appeals and alternate plans, denials, re-plans and so on but there are some interesting things that the government chose to ignore completely when they suggested that students could formally be entitled to use their mock mark as an alternative grade..

There's no such thing as a standard mock exam. Everybody does them differently, at different times, using different materials, different scope of the course, different working conditions, different admin.

You might sit a formal mock, using a randomly selected past paper that the class teacher didn't know was coming and couldn't base their teaching on, which might be marked by a different class teacher to your own or at the very least might be internally moderated and standardised by a centre, comparing different staff marking with each other to make sure it's reasonably equal

You might sit a formal mock on one part of the course, or on two out of three sections, and so on. Your teacher might have deliberately prepped you for that test, or, knowing what the test questions were going to be, might have inevitably taught around them in particular

You might sit a 'walking/talking' mock, where the idea is to work your way though an exam paper with open books, discussing things with staff and other students and trying to produce the best answers you can

Your school might have a policy of using mock results to shock or scare you into getting on with it and make a point of marking harshly

I always objected to seting mock exams when the school wanted me to (in the old days of AS and A2) because I taught a course with two units in each year, one c/w and one exam, and the students virtually always did better in coursework, so we spent the first term of A2 doing the coursework as well as it could possibly be done and then had a term and a half for the exam. So, given that this has always been fairly common, some schools won't have mock exam marks at all for some subjects.

And yet this was the plan as a formal alternate to the algorithm.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Coronavirus and the impact on measures of UK government education output

This is crazy, I can't believe anyone would take whatever figure is squeezed out at the end of this ridiculous process remotely seriously. The data they are using is so dodgy and the variables so many it's akin to being given a few of the dots of a pointillist painting, smudging them, then trying to decide what the painting is actually of. They're statistics for the sake of statistics, which is fine if that's what you're into but to claim they have any real world significance is laughable.

I mean right at the start they're basing their findings on results from an app for teachers, not any kind of official figures, and using that as their foundations. So we're already on shaky ground, a little tweak here and there to those figures will have an enormous effect on determining the 'non-market output' they're seeking.

But it must be asked, if taking a few thousand teachers word for it on an app is good enough for a statistical model measuring the output of the education sector, why is their word not good enough when assessing the results of their own students?

[PorFavor]

[youtube]EO7cD6qmydo[/youtube]

[Willow904]

@gilsey

Thanks for the rabbit hole, I had a look but it was a long way down. What I did grasp was yes, a decision to record educational output in this way wasn't pre-ordained but decided upon in response to the coronavirus closures. Thought so. Also, yes, teachers were recorded as still teaching and students were recorded as still learning even though they weren't physically in school, but were found, understandably, to be outputting slightly less than normal. And yes, presumably the article is right that other countries may not have done this but......it could be argued that we calculated it correctly so our fall in GDP is accurate and the other countries too optimistic because they weren't nerdy enough to do it properly!!!!!!

(I'll shut up now. My pedantic questions have been answered. Thank you )

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Ah the Singing Nun, that was the last great season of American Horror Story before it went all Lady Gaga.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

teachers were recorded as still teaching and students were recorded as still learning even though they weren't physically in school, but were found, understandably, to be outputting slightly less than normal.

They actually say...

We have not taken account of how much (or not) students are participating in the learning provided.

Which is fine because as they say themselves adjusting for the level of student engagement with classes in normal times is an impossible task.

So what they've based their figures on is the amount of work provided by teachers, not how much of it was done by students. Having visited my GCSE science teacher brother and seen what he was getting back from his students (from half of them it was practically nothing) I would suggest that means the ONS are actually overestimating the 'non-market output' of our schools if we are to take their workings remotely seriously.

[Willow904]

@Sky'sGoneOut

Tbh I doubt the data used to guesstimate lockdown educational output is any more sketchy than the data used to calculate the contribution of prostitution or the black economy

It is, as you say, complete hokum really.

Even if we've diddled ourselves out of a bit of paper GDP compared to other EU countries it doesn't change the basic fact our economy is currently in big trouble and possibly more so than our neighbours.

[Willow904]

Meanwhile, realizing it's impossible to calculate lockdown educational output accurately, other countries stuck with their usual figures because if you're going to have an inaccurate figure anyway you might as well go for the one which doesn't require any work, knock off early and go for a drink.....which might explain their superior GDPs!

On which note, I think it's time for bed.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

So hands up who would like to have had their A level results decided on how poor you were and the results of the previous years?

Because I would have loved it. After my mocks I had interviews at Durham, Leeds and Reading (shithole) them proceeded to fuck things up for various reasons and ended up having to go to a college in a mining town that Thatcher had just butchered to spend two of the most depressing years of my life. There were syringes lying in the gutter in the high street and they burned down the jobcentre. Not that it had any jobs in it anyway. I wonder if we'll see anything like that this time.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Tbh I doubt the data used to guesstimate lockdown educational output is any more sketchy than the data used to calculate the contribution of prostitution or the black economy

Don't forget drug dealing, I seem to remember Osborne included that in our GDP, and from my experience the lockdown has had quite a serious effect on the drugs market. Demand remains the same but the supply has been crippled so 'skunk' around here has doubled in price. In any other normal time you'd smell it all over the place in an area like this but not now. An acquaintance who indulges in the stuff was blaming 'middle class' folks for panic buying from dealers leaving nothing for those who don't have hundreds of pounds to spare and causing what is essentially inflation.

So that's surely good news for our GDP. Perhaps the drug dealers can counteract our teachers.

Goodnight Willow.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[youtube]GV3QZVp17rE[/youtube]

These lot went on to become the Medieval Babes, who sounded a bit like nuns.

[PorFavor]

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[Sky'sGoneOut]

Heh. That was brilliant.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

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[Sky'sGoneOut]

She was an awful woman.

[PorFavor]

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[Sky'sGoneOut]

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[PorFavor]

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[PorFavor]

Night night.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Goodnight PF.

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[Sky'sGoneOut]

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[Sky'sGoneOut]

One last one, why not?

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[Sky'sGoneOut]

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[Sky'sGoneOut]

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